Vehicles, such as automobiles and aircraft, often include regions within the passenger cabin that include glass panes. The glass panes, for example, can be associated with a windshield or window of the vehicle.
If equipped with passenger entertainment systems, the vehicles often include video monitors for displaying information and otherwise entertaining passengers during travel. For various reasons, it is desirable for such monitors to include a front cover made of glass. Glass, however, can shatter, breaking into dangerous shards when struck. The glass can be struck by a head or other appendage of a passenger, injuring the passenger, if the vehicle suddenly decelerates or swerves during travel or if an emergency situation arises. Besides the potential for injury to passengers, broken glass is also difficult and dangerous for clean-up crews to remove.
Conventional video monitors typically have a front cover that is made of glass. These front covers do not fail in a safe and predictable manner during delethalization testing of the Head Injury Criteria as defined by the Federal Aviation Administration. That is, either shards of glass or the entire glass cover fall into the passenger cabin during such testing. Recognizing the desirability of incorporating video monitors with a front cover made of glass, airlines and their suppliers have tried unsuccessfully for years to design a front cover made of glass that fails in a safe and predictable manner.
In view of the foregoing, a need exists for a system and method for providing a translucent material and assembly that promotes impact safety in transportation and other operating environments.
It should be noted that the figures are not drawn to scale and that elements of similar structures or functions are generally represented by like reference numerals for illustrative purposes throughout the figures. It also should be noted that the figures are only intended to facilitate the description of the preferred embodiments. The figures do not illustrate every aspect of the described embodiments and do not limit the scope of the present disclosure.